On a spring evening in Plainfield, New Jersey, the life of 32-year-old Jaquan Heyward, a Black male, was cut short by gunfire. The incident occurred on Sunday, May 26, 2019, in the courtyard of the Liberty Village housing complex on Liberty Street. At approximately 8:20 p.m., officers from the Plainfield Police Division responded to reports of a shooting. Upon arrival, they discovered Heyward suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
He was rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
The investigation into Heyward's death was a collaborative effort involving the Union County Homicide Task Force, the Plainfield Police Division, the Union County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Unit, and the Union County Police Department Ballistics Unit. Their joint investigation led them to identify 26-year-old Djuan Gamble, also of Plainfield, as the primary suspect in the fatal shooting. On June 12, 2019, formal charges were filed against Gamble, which included first-degree murder and two second-degree weapons offenses.
Following the issuance of an arrest warrant, a multi-agency search for Gamble was initiated. The manhunt, which involved local and federal authorities, spanned three weeks. The search concluded on July 3, 2019, when members of the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force located and apprehended Gamble at a relative's home in Baltimore, Maryland. He was taken into custody without incident and held in Maryland pending extradition to New Jersey to face the charges against him. If convicted of murder, Gamble faces a potential sentence of 30 years to life in state prison. Authorities continued to encourage anyone with further information regarding the shooting to come forward, with the Union County Crime Stoppers offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment.
